Pages

Follow beer writer, Troy Burtch, as he explores the wonderful world of craft beer and the pubs that serve it. Great Canadian Beer is a place to come to catch up on beer news, read tasting notes, check out event listings, and for pub previews and reviews.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Pumphouse Beers Head West

When I was living out in the Maritimes I used to hear about all the people that had packed up and headed to Alberta to work the oil rigs or join the construction boom to make some serious money. People used to call Labatt's from Calgary looking for us to ship Oland's Export Ale over to them as they couldn't get it there.

Well, one Maritime brewery is doing something about that. News today from New Brunswick has Pumphouse Brewery, the 2005 Canadian Brewery of the Year, shipping their Scotch, Blueberry and Fire Chief's Red beers to the thirsty maritimers in the prairies and for fans of craft beer. This will be the first time the Moncton, NB beers will be available out west on a large scale capacity, joining other craft brewers who have found a nice home in Alberta, as the province is big on premium products. There was 6,240 bottles loaded, or 26 pallets, which are headed to 20 privately owned liquor stores.

"It's great and we're very excited. For us it's expansion, more jobs, bigger market share -- all the positive things you like to talk about," stated Pumphouse Brewery owner Shaun Fraser to the Times and Transcripts newspaper yesterday.

Pumphouse opened as a brewpub in Moncton, NB in 1999 and currently sells their Blueberry Ale, Cadian Ale, Scotch Ale and Fire Chief's Red Ale in 6 packs throughout New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI. Seasonal releases have made appearances in Ontario and Quebec.